$465,702

McLaren 650S first drive review

Lessons learned from its own P1 Supercar and technology banned by Formula 1 has helped create the latest hypercar to hit showrooms, the McLaren 650S, and kill off another very good one in the process.

Just three years after the clumsily named but super-fast MP4-12C supercarhit the streets, McLarenhas gone back to the drawing board and, with 25 per cent new parts and more horsepower, has created the 650S, named for its prodigious 650-horsepower engine output.

In the process it has inadvertently put a bullet in the head of the MP4 12C which was to run alongside the new 650S at McLaren’s Woking plant in England but has now been axed at the eleventh hour.

And as well as extra performance (0-100km/h in 2.9 seconds) and a top speed of 333km/h, McLaren is also claiming the new car offers better driver involvement and more luxury.

McLaren 650S video reviewBritish brand's new ballistic hypercar gets a power upgrade and increased luxury features on its predecessor.

Funny, then, a reversing camera – so vital on supercars with their limited rear vision – is an extra-cost option on the 650S.

The new McLaren will also launch on to the market in both Coupe and Spider (open-top) versions simultaneously, giving buyers a choice of whether to be seen enjoying the kids’ inheritance or not.

The Spider version uses a folding metal hard-top which can be operated at speeds up to 30km/h and takes 17 seconds to either stow or unfurl.

The 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 engine from the 12C remains but has been substantially tweaked to produce 481kw at 7500rpm and 678Nm of torque at 6000rpm.

The carbon-fibre core of the car, McLaren’s MonoCell, is carried over from the 12C, too, and it’s this light but incredibly stiff passenger-cell structure that allows for a drop-top version that gives nothing away to the Coupe (bar a small weight penalty) in performance and handling terms.

Back when the 12C Spider was launched in 2012, McLaren was at pains to point out that the MonoCell heart of the vehicle was always designed with a convertible version in mind, and that level of engineering has now been extended to the 650S.

McLaren’s clever PCC suspension system which links diagonal corners of the car via hydraulics has also been brought over from the 12C.

The system allows for flat cornering without the need to resort to relatively crude (but still widely used) anti-roll bars. As such, the ride is better than it should be, yet the car’s race-track smarts aren’t diminished.

McLaren’s seven-speed double-clutch box remains with a few tweaks here and there and the 650S, like the 12C, remains stoically rear-wheel-drive.

If all this sounds like the 650S might in fact be a facelifted MP4 12C, then that’s really what’s going on.

That said, it’s a pretty substantial facelift with 25 per cent of the 650S altered from the 12C.

The main changes include the front and rear fascias which borrow from the styling cues of the P1 Supercar as well as some internal changes including different suspension settings and alterations to the engine to boost that maximum power number.

But the footprint remains, so does the basic interior and those crazy doors that scissor up rather than open out conventionally.

But the new car gets carbon-ceramic brakes as standard, a new set of LED headlights inspired by the McLaren P1 Supercar and revised suspension with firmer springs (33 per cent heavier in the rear) re-rated dampers and the latest generation Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tyres measuring a monster 305/30 20 on the rear and 235/35 19s on the front.

The styling changes are a mixture of P1 inspiration and wind-tunnel number-crunching.

McLaren says the changes amount to a 24 per cent increase in downforce at 240km/h and include the new P1-styled front splitter, the air-brake first seen on the 12C and an automatic DRS (Drag Reduction System, now banned in Formula 1) which flattens the rear wing at high speed in a straight line to reduce aero drag.

From any angle the 650S looks stunning.

It’s both more aggressive and sharper looking than the 12C which was faintly criticised for looking a bit generic.

Jump inside and the feeling of being in a very high-end product remains.

The 650S is now trimmed entirely in alcantara (although the alcantara steering wheel is still an option) and the animated dashboard layout is high-tech and intriguing without ever looking like the arcade-game that is the interior of the Nissan GT-R, for instance.

Sports seats are optional but lovely and the strict two-seater cabin should fit most sized humans.

Once they’re in, that is.

Those scissor-action doors require you to climb under them and then decide whether to enter head, backside or feet-first. The jury is still out on the best method.

Fire up the V8 and it leaps into life and then settles into a fast idle along with a soundtrack that could be mistaken for a four-cylinder engine.

It’s the flat-plane crankshaft at work there and there’s not a hint of the type of V8 burble most eight-cylinder road cars exhibit.

In fact, it can all sound a bit pedestrian at first, but a prod on the throttle reveals a revvy, hyper-sensitive nature and a noise that goes from almost banal to shrieking inside a few thousand rpm.

And above that shriek is a compressed-air orchestra with the turbochargers whistling and sighing, the wastegates sneezing and whiffling and the exhaust popping and banging on the over-run. It is, without a word of a lie, truly something to behold.

And the performance itself is brutal.

There’s very little of the rushiness that some turbo motors exhibit, instead the torque builds progressively and early, making the V8 feel almost like a normally-aspirated nine-litre engine rather than a turbocharged 3.8. And that’s a mighty compliment.

And then you look down at the digital speedo and realise that what felt like a sprint to 100km/h was about double that.

The steering matches the engine for clarity, too, and although there’s a tiny amount of tramlining, the steering is tactile and accurate with a fast action.

If anything, the lack of weight over the front axle feels like it might allow the car to understeer a fraction, but that sensation only lasts until there’s some speed on board when the sophisticated aerodynamics start gluing the car to the road.

And then it’s a riot with flat cornering and switchable modes (normal, sport and track) with the track setting letting the ESP and ABS off the leash a little and handing some responsibility back to the driver.

The carbon-ceramic brakes need a decent shove, but haul the 650S down time after time from high speeds, even at the frightening Ascari circuit in Spain where the launch was partly held.

In fact, the track is the obvious place to extract the most from the car, but the McLaren is actually most remarkable for its on-road manners and sheer ride quality.

How you’d make a 650S bottom its front suspension is beyond us, and for a supercar like this on public roads, that’s saying something.

But there it is; despite that Formula 1 input, the 650S’ best trick is its day-to-day usefulness and comfort, and if there’s ever been a supercar that was made for fetching the morning’s bread and milk, this is it.

McLaren’s Australian division is being pretty coy about market expectations for the 650S and won’t commit to a sales forecast.

But who ever buys it will need to be fiscally comfortable; the Coupe starts at $441,500 plus on-road costs and the Spider will set you back $486,250.

And then you need to add the reversing camera.

More power … the McLaren way

When it comes to extracting more power form a modern, turbocharged engine, the quick, cheap and efficient way is to simply screw up the boost.

But that’s not how McLaren does things and the revisions to the MP4 12C’s V8 to turn it into the 650S’ unit are much more involved.

In fact, boost pressure hasn’t been altered at all, and the extra 19kW are all down to finite changes to the engine’s hardware.

The pistons, for instance, are a new design and so are the cylinder heads.

The changes in these areas are subtle, but changing anything of this nature is a major engineering job.

The camshafts have also been revised to provide the same lift but different duration and timing and the exhaust valves are a new design.

The blaring note of the dry-sumped V8 is now the responsibility of a new exhaust system and all this when nobody had actually complained that their 12C wasn’t fast enough.